Man gets 6 years for eating eagle

ABS-CBN News

MANILA, Philippines – A farmer in Bukidnon has been sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for killing, cooking and eating a rare Philippine eagle.

Authorities said the 26-year-old Bryan Balaon shot dead a Philippine eagle named “Kagsabua” in 2008 with an air gun.

Balaon then brought the bird home and he cooked it into “tinola,” or a local soup dish.

The Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources states that killing endangered species is prohibited.

“This is a triumph of those conservationalists and environmentalists who protect the wildlife,” said Belen Daba, regional technical director OIC of PAWD.

Balaon was also fined P100,000 for the violation.

Authorities are still tracking down Balaon, who earlier surrendered to authorities but was released after he denied that he committed the crime.

In 2006, the same eagle was handed to wildlife officials after it was seized from a man who shot it and kept it as a caged pet.

The eagle was then fitted with a radio transmitter and was released back into the wild at Mount Kitanglad in March 2008.

Balaon shot the bird 4 months later.

The Philippine eagle, or Pithecophaga jefferyi, is considered the world's largest eagle and is "critically endangered" with just 90 to 250 pairs left in the wild, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. -- Reports from Trini Velasco, ABS-CBN News Caraga; Agence France-Presse